The 39th Annual Hunger League
by parkerw1997
Summary: Jace and his partner's life is changed forever when they are drawn to participate in the Hunger League, a brutal game broadcasted on live television where children and their pokemon fight to the death. He and his fellow tribute have to abandon their humanity to survive and win the games. But there can only be one winner.
1. Prologue

Over 400 years ago, a cataclysm struck the pokemon world. Nobody is quite sure what happened, though some whisper it was the ancient legendaries, Groudon and Kyogre. One quarter of what was once the pokemon world was covered over with water, and the remaining civilizations on land became ruins.

However, humanity (with the help of their pokemon) managed to rebuild that which they had lost. The Unova region was the first to complete rebuild, and because of this they took control over the other regions. Kanto, Johto, Hoenn, Sinnoh, Kalos, Orre, Sevii, Fiore, Almia, Oblivia, Holon and Decolore. These were the regions that fell under Unova, the capitol's, rule.

As the other regions struggled, Unova lived in luxury and developed technology that far surpassed those of the other regions. The other regions found that the Unova were tyrants, and 34 years ago, decided that they should rebel against them to gain a share of luxury.

Using their pokemon, each and every region attacked Unova. But it was not enough, for they had the two legendary genetic mutations in their possession, the clone Mewtwo and the living weapon Genesect.

Winning the war, the Unovian government placed a rule as punishment.

Anyone signing up to be a trainer, between the ages of 10 and 18, would have slips entered into a draw. If your slip was drawn, you had to partake in a fight to the death in an arena with your pokemon by your side.

When you sign up as a trainer and obtain your starter, you receive one entry, one for each capture, two for a first evolution, and three for a second. Another for every year as a trainer corresponding to how many years you had been training, and a number of slips corresponding to the order of badges, and which ones you had.  
These entries would be put into the draw for the arena.

This fight for the death would be shown on live television, all across the 12 districts and Unova. In Unova, as a means to entertain and in the other regions as a means to punish those living there.

This "game" is called "The Hunger League". 


	2. Chapter 1: Countdown

Chapter 1: Countdown

The pedestal ascended until I was greeted by the outside world.

60...

I observed my surroundings, counting off all 23 of the "tributes" on their own pedestals. Each of them held an orange-sized ball varying in colour.

50...

I stared at my own ball, inside was my life partner, Hotshot my Combusken. In a few moments I would release him from the orb and we would charge towards the center, grabbing what we could from the arena's "capricornia". I would grab the bag of Great Balls, while he would grab the sword near the edge. The Capricornia was in a field, and surrounding it was a thick forest which I would run into after I had gotten the items.

40...

I, Jace, was from Hoenn, the male tribute. My best friend, Sasha, was the female tribute. I gave one last squeeze to the pendant on my necklace, for good luck. Us tributes were allowed to bring one other item with us, as long as it couldn't be used as a weapon. It was the last memory I had of my father.

30...

I looked around at the other tributes, each waiting for the cannon to fire, signaling the time to run. I listed off all of their pokemon in my head, to prepare for the upcoming bloodbath. There were the Kanto tributes, the male had a Charizard and the female had an Alakazam. Both had volunteered to join the Hunger League. There were the Johto tributes, the male with his Scizor and the female with her Meganium. There was me with my Combusken and my best friend with her Dusclops. There were the Sinnoh tributes, with their Electrivire and Magmortar. Both were friends, and both had volunteered. They would definitely be a threat. Kalos' male tribute had a Tyrunt, and the female had a Honedge, which she would definitely use as a weapon at the beginning. The Sevii male had a Voltorb and the female had a Porygon2. The Oblivia male had a Dewott and the female had a... I can't remember. I couldn't remember the rest.

15...

My muscles tensed, as I prepared to go into a full out sprint.

10...

I looked towards Sasha, who nodded at me. We would be working together.

5...

4...

My heart was beating unbelievably fast.

3...

2...

I took a deep breath.

1...

The cannon blared loud enough to make my ears ring, I was momentarily deaf. I immediately released Hotshot and sprinted as fast as I could towards the Capricornia.

Muffled screams and explosions reached my ears, but I paid no attention. I was completely focused on my target. I quickly grabbed the bag of great balls and glanced towards Hotshot, who already had the sword in hand. I recalled him into his Pokeball, and took the sword from him before he could disappear into the red and white sphere.

I started to sprint away from the Capricornia, almost being shot by a jet of flame coming from the mouth of the Kanto tribute's Charizard in the process.

I reached the forest and gave one last glance at the Capricornia, just in time to see the Sevii tribute's Electrode explode near it, killing its trainer and the male Kalos tribute in the process. His Tyrunt moved over to his body, and let out a wailing cry. 3 cannons fired. The other tributes continued to fight to gain control of the Capricornia, though a few ran off into the woods. (I saw the Sinnoh tributes do this)

I shook my head, then started into the forest, but was stopped dead in my tracks by something that coiled around my leg and hit me on the head.

Everything faded to black...

"Jace!"

A was jolted awake by a voice yelling my name. I opened my eyes, but closed them just as soon when my head started throb in pain.

"W-What? Wh-Who?" I managed to blurt out.

"Oh, thank Arceus you're still alive, we thought we lost you"

The voice spoke again, this time a bit more clearer. It was a girl talking. A familiar girl, someone I knew. It was... "Sasha?"

"Yeah, it's me. Are you alright?"

I managed to sit up and open my eyes.

I was greeted by a tall girl of average build with long brown hair. Her deep blue eyes light up when she saw that I wasn't severely hurt. It was Sasha.

"Yeah, I'm feeling all right... Though my head hurts a little. What happened?" I managed to say as my consciousness slowly returned, and observed my other surroundings. We were near the edge of a cave, and the sun was setting.

"Well, I lost sight of you because you didn't follow the plan. We were supposed to just run to the woods remember?"

I groaned, that was the original plan.

"S-Sorry, but we needed something to defend ourselves in case our poke-"

"Maybe, but I was expecting you to come running with me. Anyway, as soon as I noticed you weren't nearby, I went looking for you. I found you just as the Arbok was about to squeeze you into moosh. Me and Dusclops here," she pointed to the Pokeball attached to her belt "Managed to save you just in time"

"So how did you save me?"

Sasha's face darkened. "W-Well, I had to... Kill them"

I let out a nervous, hysteric laugh. My best friend had one of the first kills in the game. But... She didn't really have a choice did she?

I was just about to say something to possibly comfort her, when the Unovian coat of arms suddenly appeared in the sky and the Unovian anthem began to play.

This was the way they showed off the deaths.

A picture of the dead tributes, one by one, was shown on the screen. The male Kalos tribute, the male Sevii tribute and his Electrode, the female Sevii tribute, the male Holon tribute and his Arbok (Sarah recoiled a bit when she saw this), the female Holon tribute's Pikachu and finally the female Fiore tribute and her Jigglypuff.

5 human deaths.

4 pokemon deaths.

The game had only just begun.


	3. Chapter 2: Victims

Chapter 2: Victims

Night fell.

We ate a few of the nutrition bars from the backpack Sasha got from the dead Sevii tribute and then decided to sleep. Sasha's Dusclops kept watch over us and would alert us to any approaching people or pokemon. It had no need for sleep.

I found it a bit unnerving to have the ghost-type stand near by in the darkness, but I eventually fell asleep. I had a surprisingly peaceful sleep, and when I woke up the next morning, Sasha told me it was because Dusclops ate our nightmares. She recalled it into its Pokeball, thanking it for watching over us.

I let out Hotshot, who came out in a fighting stance.

"It's all right buddy, we aren't in any danger. For now at least" I told him.

He calmed down a bit, but he was still alert and ready.

We had more of the nutrition bars from earlier and I gave Hotshot a piece of mine. Then, we started to walk deeper through the woods. Our goal was to keep moving as far away from the Capricornia as possible, which is where the stronger tributes usually stayed. Most likely, either the Kanto or Johto tributes had taken hold of the Capricornia. They almost always did.

As we walked deeper into the woods, Sasha attempted to start a conversation. "I'm still in shock about being in the Hunger League..."

"Yeah," I said, "this doesn't even seem real"

Silence lingered for a long moment, until Sasha spoke up again, her voice quivering.

"Wh-When I killed that person, I didn't even give it a second thought at the time" there was a pause, "but I saw his face when he died" she choked back a sob "he was crying. Crying because I killed his pokemon, crying because I was going to kill him. H-He was helpless, I could have justlefthimbutI..."

The rest was jumbled into unintelligible sobs.

There was a moment of silence, only interrupted by an occasional sob from Sasha. I approached her and put my hand on her shoulder, attempting to comfort her.

"Sasha, I don't hate you for what you did. Nobody hates you for what you did. You really didn't have the choice, that's what this is remember? A death match. It's kill or be killed. We're going to have to kill someone else in the future, and we can't afford to hesitate"

Of course, I didn't mention that in the end, we'd have to kill each other. I didn't want to even think about that until the time actually came.

Sasha stopped sobbing abruptly. "No, you're right. I can't hesitate. We need to get through this together. If I need to kill, then so be it. I'll do whatever it takes to get us out of this arena"

We stayed there for a minute, then started to pack up our things and continued to walk deeper into the woods, as far away from the center as we could.

We were surprised to find a half destroyed PokeMart while we explored the forest.

"Do you think there's anything worth getting in there?" Sasha asked me.

"Probably, it won't hurt to check" I replied.

We let out both of our pokemon, who both came out ready for combat. It took a moment to ease Hotshot. The arena was really getting to him.

The four of us moved together into the PokeMart, and were relieved to find it was devoid of any other life. The building smelled of mold and rotten food. Aisles were knocked over and all of the glass was smashed. Small plants grew through the floor and coiled up the walls.

"Jace, look!" Sarah pointed towards one of the aisles.

"What!?" She startled me a bit.

"Pokeballs... And potions!"

I let out an exclamation, this was a pretty big find! There was an entire rack of intact potions and a few intact pokeballs, great balls and ultra balls.

Sasha and I each grabbed two Ultra Balls, Four Great Balls and Six Poke Balls.

We searched for something else, but that was all we could find, which was more than we could have ever hoped for.

We continued to move on a bit further, passing by a few other ruined buildings. It seemed like this year's arena was built around an abandoned city. After rummaging through a few of them we decided to make camp in one of the houses, as the night was approaching.

Moments after the camp was built, the sound of two cannons firing shattered the silence. Two people, or pokemon had died. We all tensed up.

"J-Just because we heard the cannon doesn't mean they died nearby, the cannons are set up so they can be heard all across the arena"

This eased everyone a little, until the Unovian Coat of Arms appeared in the sky and the anthem started to play.

The faces of the fallen appeared on the hologram.

The Female Holon tribute and the Female Sevii tribute's Porygon2 had died.

After the anthem stopped, Sasha and I exchanged a few words in conversation. It was difficult, with the knowledge that at least one of us wouldn't make it out of this alive.

Eventually though, our "conversation" died down and we said our goodnights.

1 human death, 1 pokemon death.

6 Human deaths in total, 5 pokemon deaths in total.

I fell asleep wondering what had killed the most recent two.

Little did I know, we would soon find out.


	4. Chapter 3: Sand Stream

Chapter 3: Sand Stream

The next morning, I was rudely awakened by a blast of sand hitting my face. My first thought was that we were being attacked, my mind went over the worst possible scenarios one by one in a flash. What if they had Sasha? What if they killed our pokemon?

"What the hell?" I blurted out, but my voice was completely drowned out by a harsh wind pushing the sand around in the air. We were caught in a Sandstorm.

I turned my head towards where Sasha was sleeping, and she was still there. I gave a short thanks to Arceus. Her Dusclops was trying to gently wake her up, but we didn't have the time. A Sandstorm doesn't just start by itself in a forest, chances are there was a wild/trainer's pokemon that triggered it.

I shook her awake while screaming her name, and her eyes finally fluttered open. "Wh-What?" She mumbled, then jolted up and awake when she saw the situation.

I let out Hotshot, and each of us tore pieces from our clothing that we would use to cover our mouths, then walked outside.

The sandstorm was raging even harder outside.

"Where's it coming from?" Sasha screamed.

She was replied by a ear pounding roar that shook the air. Moments later, we saw trees shaking to our right.

"Run!" I screamed, but it was too late. The beast burst into the clearing we were in, and let out another roar. It was huge. About seven feet tall. The beast had green, rocky skin with an occasional spike or two. A blue otter-like pokemon, a Dewott, was impaled on the three spikes on the beast's dinosaur-like head. A young boy, about ten years old, was clutched tightly in the beast's right hand. The kid was either dead or unconscious, I wasn't sure, but he was definitely dead when the creature ripped him in half and tossed him aside. It let out another roar, showing rows of razor sharp serrated teeth, then tore the Dewott off of its head as well. I noticed the sand storm was actually coming out of the holes in the creature's skin. I wanted to run. I wanted to get out of here as fast as possible. But I couldn't move, I was paralyzed by fear.

Then, it looked directly at me. It looked directly into my eyes, and charged towards me, kicking up dirt and tearing apart the landscape as it did so.

My body finally decided to respond again, and I screamed as quickly as I could "Hotshot, use Superpower!"

My Combusken faltered for a moment, obviously intimidated by the bulky monstrosity charging towards him, then jumped into the air.

The beast saw this, and tried to stop itself but it already had too much momentum. It tripped, and fell flat on its face, kicking up debris and making the ground shake in the process. It writhed and squirmed, trying to get back up, but Hotshot slammed down onto the back of the creature, sending a shock wave of red energy through the air. The beast let out a roar of pain, but managed to grab Hotshot. It was about to slam Hotshot on to the ground, but he managed to wiggle free.

The beast struggled to get up again, and Hotshot took a quick glance in my direction.

"Superpower, again!" I screamed.

"Dusclops, Brick Break!" I heard Sasha scream.

Both Hotshot and Sasha's Dusclops ran towards the beast, and punched it right in the face. It's skin cracked a little, it let out one last weak roar, then it fell unconscious.

I immediately pulled an Ultra Ball off of my belt, and tossed it at the beast. A ray of red light shot out, and pulled the beast inside of the ball. The Ultra Ball hit the ground, shuddered thrice, then clicked, indicating that I had successfully caught the pokemon.

All four of us stood there for a moment, breathing heavily. Sasha was the first to say something; "Holy shit"

"...Yeah" I agreed.

I gingerly walked over to the ball, and picked it up.

I had caught a Tyranitar.


	5. Chapter 4: No Guard

Chapter 4: No Guard

I didn't feel too good about it, and neither did Sasha, but we searched the dead tribute's body for anything useful he might have been carrying.

In his pocket, we found a pair of Go-Goggles, a small metal container, some more of the nutrition bars and a strange Pokeball with a white top and orange line. Go-Goggles were protective goggles that would stop sand from entering your eyes. Very useful, considering my new Tyranitar's ability to conjure up a Sandstorm.

"But how did he get them, and why?" Sasha asked.

"I don't know..." I started, but then it hit me "The metal container!"

Sasha gave me a puzzled look "What?"

"Remember in the other Hunger Leagues we saw on TV? Well, sometimes the really popular tributes would receive gifts from their "sponsors", gifts that would help them out in the arena"

Sasha nodded, she remembered. If a tribute was popular enough, people would pay money to "sponsor" a tribute. If enough money was donated, then the tribute would receive a gift.

"Yeah, so these Go-Goggles must have been the gift. The sponsors knew the Tyranitar was nearby, so they put money towards the Go-Goggles so he'd have an advantage. It apparently wasn't enough"

We thanked both of our pokemon, and returned them into their pokeballs for a rest.

"Sasha, be ready. I'm going to let out the Tyranitar" I said.

She nodded, and put her hand on her Pokeball. I took the ultra ball containing Tyranitar and pressed the middle button. There was a flash of red, and the huge beast came out roaring and clawing at the air in front of it, then stopped when it noticed nothing was there. It slowly turned towards me, and looked straight into my eyes. I started to back away, murmuring "no" but stopped when I realized the look it was giving me was one of happiness.

The Tyranitar stepped closer. It brought its head down to my level, and I gingerly pat it on the head. It licked my face, backed off and let out something that sounded like a cross between a purr and roar.

"Wh-Wh... What?" I mumbled. The transition between a berskerking abomination to a gentle giant was pretty shocking. Then I remembered that pokemon never acted that outrageous in the wild unless provoked, pokemon were the friends of human-kind. The game masters must have made all of the wild pokemon in the arena prone to attacking. The Ultra Ball must have removed the effects of whatever was wrong with this Tyranitar.

I heard a giggle to my right, and turned to see Sasha laughing at me and the Tyranitar. I couldn't help letting out a giggle too, and soon me and Sasha were both laughing together. The Tyranitar even joined in, letting out a slightly scary, throaty laugh. We almost forgot where we were, until the Tyranitar suddenly stopped cold.

It let out a growl in the direction of the woods, making Sasha and I hush ourselves and take a look.

I could hear twigs and leaves crackling underfoot from someone coming our way. I turned towards Sasha, she took her Poke Ball off of her belt and so did I.

The footsteps grew louder, and faster. Whoever or whatever it was was getting closer.

Tyranitar positioned itself into a battle stance.

The footsteps were at the very edge of the forest. I could see a humanoid shape through the trees.

"Who's there?" I yelled out. "We don't want to hurt you, so just step out where we can see you!"

The person hesitated for a moment, then stepped out into the clearing. It was a girl, a year or two younger than me; probably fifteen. She had deep black hair that went down past her shoulders, and green eyes that appeared almost void of emotion. She wore the standard female tribute attire, with a few scratches and tears in some places. She glanced at the Tyranitar first, then towards me, then Sasha.

"We don't want to hurt you, we can maybe work together until the..." I started, but stopped when I heard her whisper.

"Sacred Sword"

None of us had time to react as two swords flew towards Tyranitar, and slashed a hole into his arm. The swords returned towards the girl almost as fast as they came. As I sent out my Combusken, I noticed that each sword had pink scarf-like things coming from the hilt and and an eye in between each handle. These weren't swords, these were pokemon. The Kalos tribute's Honedge had evolved into a Doublade.

The girl was about to command her Doublade again, until she realized that she was outnumbered, and each of our pokemon had a type advantage against hers. She grabbed the Doublade by the hilt of each sword and returned it to its sheaths. She gave one last look in our direction, then ran back into the woods without saying another word.

"Should we follow her?" Sasha asked.

"No, but be on guard, she might be planning a surprise attack"

I returned Tyranitar, he was hurt but not too badly. Sasha and I both kept our pokemon out and decided to head the opposite way the Kalos tribute went.

We walked for a few hours, taking breaks every now and then, and pillaging any buildings we could find. Night fell when we reached an abandoned pokemon center, where we decided to stay the night. We ate a nutrition bar each, leaving only one left for each of us.

"We need to find food" Sasha said.

"I know. We will, but not now, in the morning after we've rested"

The anthem played in the sky, as the faces of the fallen appeared in the air. The Male Oblivia Tribute and his Dewott were the only deaths this day.

Sasha let her Dusclops out to watch over us, but I couldn't fall asleep. I thought again about the events before the arena, and about how much that I hated the Capitol.


End file.
